My {Freshly Organized} Stampin’ Space

The New Year is always a great time to clean, organize and declutter, don’t you agree?  I can’t be alone on this; the sale ads are chock full of storage containers and other organizing things to make our lives more organized and our homes less cluttered.

Well, My Stampin’ Space seemed to take a beating this past month.  Lots of last minute cards & tags to make, lots of new products ordered, and NO TIME to put things away!  The better part of the day last  Sunday was devoted to cleaning & organizing My Stampin’ Space, and boy, do I feel better! A messy space = mental chaos.   A clean space = mental clarity to me.    I need that clean space to help me feel more creative (and to find things!).

So here is a little tour of my newly organized space.  No, I didn’t take any ‘before’ pictures.  I have very little room due largely in part to a 6′ wide window in front of my desk.  So I make room where I can.

You can see part of that big window in front of me.  I take advantage of the deep windowsill;  it is perfect for my stampin’ scrub, embellishment holder, and my marker storage.

My old stampin’ scrub got broken at the hinge; so I keep both parts open and easily accessible.  The rotating organizer holds all those little containers of buttons & brads and other embellishments.  I used a divided pencil cup on its side to hold my Blendabilities.  I covered toilet paper rolls with DSP, & glued them together to create my own pyramid of marker holders.

To my left, is a bookshelf that faces the desk.  I found 3-drawer storage units at Wal-Mart that fit on those shelves perfectly.  They also perfectly hold my inks and other supplies.

I labeled each drawer so I know where everything is at a glance.  Hanging from the side of that bookshelf is a hanging cosmetic bag that holds my punches (old style).  Another 3-drawer unit (much larger) sits on the floor at my side.  The top drawer has my adhesives, and lower drawers have my clear blocks and my Christmas stamps.  I have my clock/radio right there along with a pen/pencil basket and and extension cord for my Iphone, heat tool, and glue guns.

I really needed more stamp set storage so I mounted this DVD storage rack on the narrow strip of wall above that.  (I can’t believe its almost full already! – No wonder I didn’t have room to stamp anymore, these were just the stamps that didn’t fit on my stamp set shelf and were just piled up on my desk!)

It was a cheap unit and kind of flimsy.   It is designed to just have one rack to hold the DVDs but it wouldn’t hold anything.  Since I had 2 double racks, I just mounted them next to each other so my stamp cases were in two racks for added stability.  You can see some are still a little wonky as the holders are not that sturdy, but it did the trick.  (Thanks to my wonderful hubby for measuring and mounting so the 2 pieces are perfectly level to one another!).

There is a door right there, which is why the wall is so narrow.  The door is a metal door (and I don’t use it too much) so I thought I would make that useful too!  Metal baskets and a few magnets are all that were need to hold my growing collection of Washi Tape in sight but corralled nicely.

Behind me is a narrow shelf unit my hubby custom built for me to hold my stamp sets, punches and ribbon.  The top shelves are used to house my stash of finished cards.  This is built onto the side of our furnace so I have to leave the grill on the bottom open so air can get into the furnace.  But another 3-drawer unit and a rack to hold my tools fit perfectly without obstructing airflow!.  The rack, again a Wal-Mart find, is designed to hold pot lids.  But my bigger tools, like my punch boards, and rotary arm for the Stampin’ Trimmer are neatly stored and easily accessible.  The drawer unit has become my new home for My Paper Pumpkin kits.  I love the red boxes, but since being a subscriber since the spring, the red boxes were really piling up.  So this is how I contained them: 

I have each kit contents in a gallon sized ziploc labeled with the date & kit name. The ziplocs are standing up in the drawers.  I have all the ink spots in a wood mount case.  Suddenly a tower of red boxes in under control!  Nice 🙂

Well, that’s all for today!  My stampin’ area is actually a 12′ long counter.  One side of the counter is where I stamp, and the other end is my actual office desk/computer area.  That side did NOT get cleaned  & organized so no photos of that just yet.  But I promise I’ll have that ready for you soon, and show you the neat way I keep my embossing folders, dies & framelits organized!  You’ll love what I found to keep them in.  AND Wonderful Hubby is going to solve my 12×12 paper woes (but not for another week or two).

Please let me know how you liked the tour of My Stampin’ Space.  Did you find any helpful tips or organizing ideas that you’d like to try out in our your space?   I’d love to hear from you if you found anything helpful.  Stamping is my passion, and probably yours too!  But organizing is an essential part of a crafters’ life too.  I hope that you were able to find a tip or two.   Until next time, Happy Stampin’ and Happy Organizing  🙂

Nancy